


Cheshire Moon

by omegaling



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Additional Tags to Be Added, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Epic quest, F/M, Rating May Change, Slow Burn, Sort of AU, Sort of canon-divergant, Sort of canon-verse, Work Together or Die, a tropetastic journey, fantastic journey, is it just fantasy, is this the real life, mild violence, pre tlj, the only way I can get away with writing a canon compliant fic, wonderland trope
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 03:31:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19985386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omegaling/pseuds/omegaling
Summary: One minute, Rey is training on Ahch-To with Luke Skywalker, learning the ways of the Force and the Jedi to better help battle the First Order.  The next, she is waking up in a strange primordial forest with no weapons, no access to the Force, and no way to call for help from her friends.To make matters worse, Kylo Ren is in the exact same predicament.---"I want to play a game," the wicked smile of the crescent moon tells them.  "There are only two rules: either you work together to reach the end of the world by the time the moon is full, or you don't, and die along the way.  The choice is yours."---Post TFA - Pre TLJ meets the Wonderland trope





	Cheshire Moon

**Author's Note:**

> So, a bit of backstory:
> 
> This fic is an idea I got back in November 2017, roughly a month before _The Last Jedi_ was released. I started writing it about the same time, but only just finished the first chapter to post a few days ago. Why did it take so long? First, I wanted to make sure I wasn't neglecting _Allez Cuisine!_ since that was, and remains, my most popular fic. And second, I'm a slow-ass writer. 
> 
> But for the most part, the last 20 months was me picking at it and going back and forth wondering if the window of opportunity for this particular idea had already closed, or, since I was so far already, finish it and see what kind of reception it got. In the end I went with the latter, even though I'm not even sure I particularly like it. But, I'm always happy to contribute something to the Reylo community, and in the end I think that's what ultimately spurned my decision to post it.

**Chapter One**

The first thing Rey became aware of as she woke was a small, sharp pain somewhere in the vicinity of her left kidney.

It was a small thing to be annoyed by, really, especially when compared to the much larger complaints demanding her attention. Her head throbbed with such intensity that it shot waves of nausea down to her stomach, her joints felt like they were made of old metal, and her eyelids may as well have been sutured shut. Not even the fact that she could not remember where she was supposed to be, or what she had been doing, rose any kind of mental alarm. The only thing her brain seemed capable of focusing on was that kriffing needle-sharp pain burning through her lower back. Rey made an effort to shift over to alleviate some of the discomfort, but her body refused to obey. Her limbs felt as heavy as the boulders she had to her lift as an exercise in Force-control.

A sudden shock ran through her system, jumpstarting cognitive thought again.

_ Ahch-To. I’m on Ahch-To, being trained by Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Force and the Jedi _ . Rey had found him by following a map to the mysterious ocean planet; the very same map that was responsible for snatching her from a life of lonely scavenging and throwing her into the epicenter of an intergalactic war; the same map that caused her to be chased through a forest by a hulking shadow bearing a blood-red lightsaber that spit sparks and tendrils of plasma. Rey could acutely remember the acrid stench of singed hair when the weapon’s blade hovered only an inch above the skin of her throat, the Force thrumming around her with the weight of a gravity well that surrounded a neutron star. A black, leather-clad hand reaching slowly for her face, and that unbearable pressure was suddenly  _ inside  _ her head, digging through her memories as she might have dug through the sands of Jakku, searching for anything of value...

Rey’s head gave a particularly nasty throb as she shoved the invasive memory away. Kylo Ren was not here. Even if he survived the implosion of Starkiller Base - and a niggling voice in the back of her head told her he managed to do just that - he was no closer to discovering Luke Skywalker’s whereabouts than before.  _ She, _ on the other hand, had been on Ahch-To for the past several weeks under the reluctant tutelage of the last Jedi, spending her time meditating, completing mundane exercises in Force control, and practicing the same repetitive lightsaber forms for hours at a time. Meanwhile on D’Qar, Finn was recovering from his injuries Ren inflicted on him, and Poe was helping General Organa lay out new tactics as the First Order scrambled to regroup following the loss of their superweapon. Everyone she knew was doing something with purpose behind it, and she was stuck on an island on a nowhere planet, some days doing little more than hauling buckets of water up the endless stretches of stairs leading from the sea to the Jedi temple. It was incredibly difficult to not think of it as a waste of time. If Snoke really did fear the uprising of a new Jedi Order, then the best way she could help the Resistance was to refine her own fledgling Force abilities in whatever manner Master Luke deemed most efficient.

That still did not answer the question of why she was only just regaining consciousness and why she could barely move.

The ache in Rey’s lower back flared anew, causing Rey to hiss through gritted teeth. With a grunt and a monumental force of will, she finally managed to heave herself over, flopping gracelessly onto her side. The pain instantly abated, taking the haze of confusion over Rey’s mind with it. The sudden clarity did nothing to restore her memory, but even before she was able to open her eyes she had the shocking realization that she was no longer on Ach-To.  _ At all _ .

The rest of Rey’s senses screamed a feeling of wrongness all around her. The salty tang of the ocean air was replaced by the scent of deep, heavy vegetation, of new growth and rot and the things that lived among it all. Avians and other creatures called to one another over the gentle hush of wind, their voices more melodious than those of the colonies of porgs that roosted on the sea cliffs. Even the ground felt different: soft and spongy and moist instead than lichen-covered rock. 

Panic began to well up in Rey’s chest, and she quickly clung to Luke’s meditation lessons before it had the chance to spiral out of control. Gradually the feeling began to subside, taking her headache and nausea with it. The relief was only short-lived, for in its absence Rey became aware of something far more terrible. It felt as though a void had opened somewhere near the vicinity her heart, a sucking feeling at the edge of her soul that had the same ferocity as the sinking fields of the Goazon Badlands. It only took her a millisecond to place it.

She could not feel the Force.

Rey’s eyes snapped open.

Sunlight pierced her corneas like blaster bolts, making her hiss and twist her head to the side. Gradually the residual burn inside her eyelids faded, allowing her to open them again, albeit with more caution.

The last bit of hope Red had that she was somewhere familiar instantly vanished. Monstrous trees - the largest Rey had ever seen - towered improbably high overhead, warped by time and blackened by the elements and hiding the sky from view with a tangled labyrinth of branches, each one large enough to land a squadron of X-wings on. The sunlight, which had seemed so harsh a moment before, rained down through the gaps in the canopy as soft golden rays and illuminated the innumerable white motes dancing lazily through the air. Unseen creatures moved through the thick canopy of leaves, causing the soft shafts of light to flicker in and out of existence. Feathery fronds, broad leaves and delicate blue and purple flowers bobbed gently over her head in a the barest whisper of a breeze. Somewhere in the distance, she heard the sound of rushing water over the chatter of the birds.

It was very beautiful, maybe even peaceful, other than the face _ she still had no idea where the kriff she was. _

A little more time had to drag by before Rey finally gained more control of her limbs, the heaviness subsiding just enough to allow her to push herself up, first on her elbows, then into a full seated position. Her head spun for a brief moment, making her vision blur at the edges, but the nausea was all but gone and the pain in her head rapidly subsiding. There was still something wrong with her vision, though, for a patch of darkness out of the corner of her eyes marred the otherwise lush greens and browns of the forest floor.

At last everything came back into focus, and Rey saw Kylo Ren laying on the ground not more than four feet away from where she sat.

Rey was barely able to stifle her cry of alarm as she frantically crab-walked backwards, desperate to put as much distance between them as possible. A snarl of fronds and creepers caught around her legs and one wrist, preventing her from going any further, and it was only then that she realized that he was not coming after her. In fact, he had not moved at all because he was completely unconscious, just as she had been. She felt ridiculous for her initial reaction, but it did not make her heart rate return to normal any faster, nor did it help her understand why she and Kylo Ren were sharing the same breathing space, much less why they were on the same planet.

_ A dream. That’s what it has to be; just a terrible, horribly realistic dream _ .

She never imagined she’s think it, but Rey took a small measure of comfort in the fact that this was not the first time she had dreamed of Kylo Ren since Starkiller Base. In some of them, he was chasing her through the Tokudana forest again, a hulking monster eight feet tall made of shadow and rage, his lightsaber and his own malice causing the foliage around him to blacken and curl in on itself. In others, he was strapped to a medical table beneath a harsh white light, writhing against bonds encircling his wrists and ankles as formidable-looking med-driods prodded the raw bowcaster wound on his side and the gaping slash across his face.

Then there was the one she’d come to think of as the cliff dream, and it was the one that unsettled her most of all. In those, Kylo stood on the edge of a bare, rocky cliff with his back to her, looking out over an ocean as smooth as black glass, and a sky that seemed to hold every star in the galaxy. The scythe-like curve of a gargantuan crescent moon hovered just above the horizon, nearly bisecting the sky in half. He never turned around to face her, never reached for his lightsaber or otherwise did anything to acknowledge her presence. The first time Rey had the dream she was certain it was a premonition that Kylo was closing in on discovering the location of Ahch-To, but when she reflected on it she realized that whenever he was, it was not on Master Luke’s solitary little island. The revelation gave her little comfort, though it took her a few more meditation sessions before she could figure out why.

Rey always thought she understood loneliness in a way that very few others could. But this place, whether it was real or not, went beyond what even she knew meant to be alone.

It was as if Kylo Ren was standing at the edge of the galaxy.

Though Rey was reluctant to open up to Master Luke about her dreams - any mention of his wayward nephew was generally met with grudging silence, which Rey was actually okay with - she did not doubt that he was able to work out what she envisioned on a nightly basis.

“Force Visions are tricky things,” he told her one night, completely unprompted, as they cleaned their catch of the day for dinner. “Even the Masters of the old Jedi Order had difficulty interpreting them. Many great knights perished - or worse - trying to force the hand of fate. But that’s not to say that the visions should be completely discredited, either. You must put your faith in the Force and your own instincts to find the right path.”

“The Force doesn’t like making things easy, does it?” Rey quipped, flicking some fish guts to a group of anxiously waiting porgs.

Luke smiled, just the smallest lift of one side of his mouth. “The galaxy would be a pretty boring place if it did, don’t you think?”

_ So that’s all this is. The Force is just trying to send me another message _ .

Though Rey had not the slightest clue of what that message may be, nor did she knew why the Force went to such lengths to make this dream more realistic than any that came before. Was there a point to the physical discomfort she felt, or why she could see each individual dark eyelash lying across Kylo’s pale cheek, or the fine weave of his clothes?

...wait, what the  _ hell _ was he even wearing?

Gone was the long surcoat, the wide belt, the arm guards and cowl, replaced by a form-fitting black bodysuit accented with faintly luminescent strips of red that ran down his arms, legs, and torso. It was a little unnerving to realize that her dreams did not over-exaggerate her memory of the sheer size of him, and that damn ridiculous suit was only drawing attention to the breadth of his shoulders and chest, the solid strength of his arms and legs…

Rey’s face became awash with heat, searing up from the back of her neck to the roots of her hair. She tore her eyes away from the plain of his stomach to land on his right arm where something on his wrist caught her attention. It looked like some kind of vambrace, matte black with a small red light that blinked in lazy intervals. It looked like some kind of tracking device, and her heart gave an uneasy lurch. Her first thought was it was something the First Order used to keep tabs on their wiley Knight, which meant if they knew where he was at any given moment, would lead them to her and Ach-To.

A new thought came to her: had she and Ren been in a battle and been rendered unconscious in the middle of it? Did whatever blow dealt to them do something to disrupt her connection to the Force? As desperate as she was for answers, she had to admit it was a stretch. All of the telltale signs of battle - the reek of ozone from blaster fire, the distant concussion of explosions and the continuous scream of starfighters - were all absent, and other than the spot where the rock dug into her and usual complaints brought on by her training, she felt no other pain.

Then again, weren’t you not supposed to feel pain in dreams?

Dream or not, Rey refused to take her eyes off of Kylo as she scrubbed a hand across the spongy forest soil until her fingers touched the rough edge of the same rock that gave her so much grief. She picked it up, tucked the nail of her thumb under it, and flicked it at Kylo’s prone form.

The rock struck Kylo Ren squarely between the eyes with a surprisingly loud pop. Whatever outcome Rey had been expecting from her little experiment, it certainly wasn’t Kylo suddenly jerking awake, cursing loudly as he clapped a hand to his forehead. She also did not mean to scream, but it erupted from her all the same, so sharp and sudden that it made the animals sheltering in a nearby tree fern shriek and flee for safety.

Kylo sat bolt upright, a tangle of long limbs and wild hair snarled with leaves and other bits of debris from the forest floor. In another reality the bewildered look on his dower face might have been comical, but laughter was the last thing on Rey’s mind as her hard-earned survival instincts finally kicked in. She sprang into a crouched position, her hand going for her lightsaber only to close her fingers around empty air.  _ Damn _ . Evidently whatever had cut her off from the Force saw to the liberty of taking her weapon, too.

Using every second of disorientation to her advantage, Rey seized the first thing her eyes landed on that could be used to defend herself; in this case, a stick four feet long and nearly half the width of her wrist. It was no quarterstaff, but it would serve its purpose. A snarl escaped Rey’s lips as the lunged at him, the end of the stick catching him hard in the shoulder and knocking him flat on his back. She pinned him, one knee digging into his solar plexus while the other went to his throat, the stick only inches from his face, ready to be driven through his eye at a moment’s notice.

“Murderous snake!” she spat at him, vitriol dripping from each syllable. Her hands trembled with barely suppressed rage and hatred burning through her veins, more potent than anything else she felt in her life. “Tell me where we are and how we got here or you’ll be breathing through a second hole in your face!”

The change in him was instantaneous. From one heartbeat to the next Kylo’s expression transformed from one of confusion to that of an attacking predator, all bared teeth and a glare cold and sharp enough to cut through durasteel. Fast as her reflexes were, Kylo was faster and unquestionable stronger; before she even realized what was happening Rey was suddenly the one on her back, her makeshift weapon torn from her grasp, one hand pinning hers over her head while the other went for her throat…

Panic burst through her, giving her a much-needed surge of strength to free her leg from under his and strike at him with her knee, aiming for his most sensitive parts. She missed her mark by several inches, but still delivered a blow to his lower gut hard enough to make him grunt in pain and loosen his grip just enough for her to break free. Rey rolled out from under him and leapt to her feet, dealing a kick to his ribs for good measure before sprinting away. She felt his fingers graze her ankle, but she bolted through the thick foliage without a backwards glance.

_ It’s my dream; my nightmare all over again _ . Fear clawed at the edges of Rey’s mind like a crazed beast, barely restrained from taking over by the need to put as much distance between her and Kylo Ren without breaking her next. The forest beyond the peaceful glen was a living embodiment of primordial chaos. Every step she took was wrought with dangers, from upraised roots to snaking vines to low-hanging fronds of tree ferns that were as solid as any branch. Unseen creatures hissed ugly warnings at her as she rushed by, and more than once she ran up against the mammoth trees that grew so close together even she could not slip between their trunks. The remnants of her rationale screamed at her to slow down, knowing that she would never hear Ren nor anything else pursuing her over the cacophony she was making. The mere thought of him closing in on her only prompted Rey to run faster, even though it felt like the forest was closing in around her, choking off any and all means of escape. And was it her fevered imagination, or was the forest getting darker? Not just from the dense foliage strangling the sunlight, but the light itself turning from afternoon gold to evening purple, so quickly that Rey began to worry that there was something wrong with her eyes on top of everything else.

Then her whole body exploded with pain, leaving no room to worry about anything else. Claws of plasma plunged into her spine and set it on fire, making Rey spasm and arch backwards to an impossible angle before she collapsed into a convulsing heap on the ground. Once, her much younger, less experienced self attempted to salvage parts from a Destroyer’s ion engine, before she learned to check for any connections to an undiscovered live power cell. The resulting shock threw Rey clean across the engine room, rendering her unconscious and leaving her with a ringing in her ears that lasted for a week, but that was absolutely nothing compared to what she was experiencing now. Every nerve in her body screamed as she hurtled toward her breaking point, but just as she was about to go over the edge the pain ceased; not a gradual fade so much as a switch being flipped, as sudden as a light going out. She drew great gasps of air through her raw throat, desperate to fill her lungs that felt shriveled and emaciated in her chest. She did not know if she had been screaming or not, but she did nearly bite through her bottom lip at one point. The thick, coppery taste of her blood coating her tongue was made her want to retch.

“I can’t decide if you biting your tongue off would be a misfortune or a blessing.”

The sound of Kylo Ren’s voice just behind her made Rey scream, a strangled, sick-sounding noise. The strange shock she received left her with just enough strength to swing a fist at Kylo’s face, but it was sloppy and miscalculated, and he was able to effortlessly catch and hold her wrist in one large hand. Her other hand shared the same fate when she tried to strike him from the other side.

“Damn it, woman, will you stop trying to attack me?”

“Let me go!” she shouted, thrashing in his grip even though she knew she was more likely to pull her arms out of their sockets than she was to break free. “Besides, you're the one to talk after trying to strangle me!”

“Self defense is generally an expected reaction when being threatened of having your face smashed in!” he retorted sharply.

“I didn’t realize electrocuting someone within an inch of their life counts as self-defense!”

“What are you going on about?”

“Don’t play dumb, I know all about those dirty tricks you darksiders like using on your victims!”

“How cute. I see old man Skywalker taught you what every padawan masters before they hit puberty.” Rey could practically hear the sneer in Kylo’s voice. “Did he also happen to mention that you need to be able to use the Force in order to use those so-called ‘dirty tricks?’”

There was something about the way said that that made Rey instantly stop struggling and look at him, though she quickly realized she couldn’t actually see much of anything. Night had fallen in full, and the silvery sheen of moonlight that managed to trickle through the high canopy allowed only the faintest illumination to their surroundings. The only other light source came from the strange outfit Kylo was wearing, the red lines running down the length of his body glowing bright enough to highlight his high cheekbones and the prominent line of his nose. All the questions Rey had since regaining consciousness came flooding back, but there was only one she was able to give immediate voice to: “You can’t feel the Force either?”

Her hostility somewhat subdued, Kylo released her wrists and sat back on his haunches, distinguishable in the darkness only by the glowing details of his bodysuit. In the silence that stretched between them Rey noticed that the sounds of the forest were drastically different than before; the musical, bell-like calls of birds and friendly chatter of small creatures had been replaced by a much darker chorus: hoots and screeches and the low, hissing slide of something stalking through the undergrowth. Every few seconds Rey caught a glimpse of a pinprick of light - most often green and yellow, sometimes red - flicker between the leaves and branches, and she desperately hoped they were from some bioluminescent insect and not the gleam of predatory eyes. Rey shivered, feeling more exposed and defenseless than ever.

“How long have I been out?” she asked tentatively. Her voice sounded much too loud, picking her out as an easy target.

She sensed more than saw Kylo shrug his shoulders. “Not sure. A few minutes, maybe. Not much longer than that.”

Rey shook her head. “That’s not possible. It was the middle of the day when I first woke up, and now it looks like it’s past midnight. Are you sure you didn’t hit your head too at some point?”

Kylo glowered at her. “What kind of explanation would you prefer? That this planet we’re somehow stranded on has an absurdly short rotation, or that its star decided to call it an early day? One is just as likely as the other for all I know.”

“Okay, fine,” Rey snapped. How was it possible for someone to be so absolutely infuriating every time they opened their mouth? She’d be perfectly fine if he never said another word to her, but she quickly realized the silence was far worse, since it allowed her to hear every animalistic noise, each shift in the foliage and slither through the thicket. Rey shuddered and decided to settle on the less of two evils. “What are you wearing? Did the First Order change their dress code?”

Kylo cocked an eyebrow at her. “I should be asking you the same thing.”

Rey looked down at herself and realized for the first time that, save for the luminous strips of pale blue, she was wearing the exact same outfit he was, down to the vambrace-like cuff on her right wrist.

It was only then that Rey well and truly panicked. It didn’t hit her all at once, but rather rose around her like an incoming tide, creeping up the weakening muscles of her legs to her cramping stomach, then further up to constrict her lungs and pounding heart before closing around her head with its spinning brain and blurring vision. Rey’s trembling hands came up to clutch the fabric over her chest, trying very hard (and failing) to not think about how - or  _ who _ \- got her into these clothes without her knowing about it.

Kylo must have sensed her oncoming hysteria, because his expression morphed from defensively hostile to something that could almost be called concern. “Hey, stay calm,” he said, reaching one hand toward her. “Losing our heads isn’t going to do either of us any…”

Rey slapped his hand away. “Stay calm?” she snarled. “How can you expect anyone to stay calm at a time like this? We’re on an unfamiliar planet that’s Maker-knows-where in the galaxy with no weapons, no means of communication and, on top of that, neither of us can use the Force!”

“Scavenger…” Kylo growled, but Rey barreled on, heedless of the warning tone in his voice.

“And on top of that, we’re wearing clothes that don’t belong to us with no memory of how we got in them or how we even kriffing got here in the first place…!”

“While I can assure you I share your confusion, right now I really think you should  _ shut. Up _ .”

You couldn’t survive in a place like Jakku without recognizing imminent danger when it made itself present, and as soon as Rey closed her mouth she felt each self-preservation instinct she honed over the years kick into overdrive. All of the night noises had stopped save for the hushing breeze through the foliage. There was something beneath that, almost beyond Rey’s hearing range, like the hum generated from a cable pulled too tight. The small hairs on her arms stood on end, the air becoming electrified with a tension that threatened to break at any moment…

They burst out of the forest like darkness solidified, a flurry of teeth and claws and glowing red eyes and howling, screaming maws. Rey and Kylo were instantly on their feet, backs pressed together as the hoard of shrieking monstrosities surrounded them on all sides. Rey felt the muscles in Kylo’s back ripple beneath her shoulder blades as he instinctively reached for his lightsaber, then hissed a curse when he found nothing there.

Rey tried to count how many creatures there were so she could get an idea of what they were up against, but they were constantly in motion, melding in and out of the darkness and each other and therefore making it impossible to determine. Risking a quick glance down, she could see the stick she used against Kylo faintly silhouetted in the faint glow coming off the illuminated strips on the legs her bodysuit. Not daring to take her eyes off the creatures, Rey slowly crouched down until she was able to wrap her hand around the only weapon she had. One of the creatures made a lunging motion at her as she started to straighten, a flare of startlingly bright red bioluminescent light igniting inside its mouth, backlighting the outline of its jagged teeth. More of the same red light began to flash all around them, accompanied by a high-pitched chattering sound, like demonic laughter. It was not hard to guess what was coming.

“Any ideas on how to handle this?” she asked in a low voice.

“Yeah,” Kylo deadpanned. “Don’t let them kill you.”

The first attack came from her right, a flash of movement punctuated by a shriek that sounded like claws on slate and sent Rey’s skin crawling. Rey jabbed at it with the stick, but it remained just out of range, leaving her with only a split second to spin around, bringing her makeshift weapon up to connect solidly with the two monsters that leapt at her from behind. They went flying into the forest, the red light of their eyes and mouths swallowed by the darkness, only to be instantly replaced by three more of the little nightmares. She readied herself for another attack only to have it come from behind, sinking sharp teeth into the meat of her arm. Rey yelped and managed to throw it off before it could do any more damage.

The creatures continued to come at them like a pack of ravenous Jakku sand demons, wave after relentless wave. Rey quickly abandoned any pretense she had for a tactical defense, forgot everything Luke taught her about detaching from her emotions during combat. Every time she felt the knick of their teeth on her calves or claws on her arms Rey envisionized the skeletonized happabore carcasses on the Jakku dunes, picked clean by the horrible animals that devoured everything in their path. Panic began to well inside her as she realized that there were simply too many of the imps to fight off, and without the use of the Force or proper weapons she and Kylo Ren were going to share the same fate, their bones laying forever on the forest floor of this unknown planet.

There was a roar of pain behind her. Rey swung around and saw a blur of red on top of a hulking shadow; one of the creatures managed to jump on to Kylo’s back. He tried to snatch it off, but it remained out of reach, slithering out of his grasp as though it was made of smoke. In the hellish light emanating from its mouth and eyes and the luminous strips on Kylo’s bodysuit, Rey could see the slick shine where the fabric was already drenched in blood.

“Kylo, don’t move!” Rey shouted. She didn’t expect him to hear her, much less do what he was told, but he nonetheless froze. The split-second opening was all Rey needed; with one great arching swing of her stick she hit the creature with a satisfying crunch, dislodging it from Kylo’s back with a single blow. The light from its eyes and mouth were instantly extinguished as it fell away, crumpling to the ground like a dead insect. Rey and Kylo resumed their back-to-back stance, ready for the next wave of attacks. She could feel his blood seeping through the back of her own suit, hot and thick, and she worried about how injured he actually was, if for no other reason than she needed him if they had any hope of surviving this.

Then, as quickly as the creatures appeared, they just...stopped. The horrid laughter-like chatter they made turned to silence and their mouths closed, leaving Rey and Kylo surrounded by a ring of red eyes that didn’t seem to burn as brightly as before. Suddenly they were fading away, melting back into the darkness as if they were never there to begin with. The only thing that told Rey they were there at all was the stinging wounds in her limbs and her labored breathing from the exertion of fighting them off.

Then again, everything that happened since she first woke up felt questionable at best, and things were only growing more bizarre with each passing moment. She still clung to the hope that this was all just a twisted dream brought on by endless Jedi training and her constant worry for her friend’s well-being.

_ Wake up, _ she begged herself.  _ This has gone on long enough. It’s time to wake up, resume training with Master Luke, get yelled at by the island caretakers, and wait for word from Finn and Leia and Poe on current First Order activity. _

A light touch on her arm nearly sent Rey jumping out of her skin. She brought the stick around to bash the brains out of whatever snuck behind her had Kylo not caught it in one of his huge hands. Rey blinked up at him, realizing only at that moment he had been trying (and failing) to get her attention.

“Scavenger,” he said, his voice firm but not unkind. “Are you injured?”

Rey jerked the stick away from him, setting the wounds on her arms and legs burning, but nothing important seemed to be missing. “No… no, I think I’m okay.” Then, because it only seemed right to ask, “What about you?”

“I’ve had worse,” he responded, even though she could see the way his face contorted in pain when he rolled his shoulder in the faint light.

Suddenly the darkness was broken by a warm golden light that spread across the wide fronds and crawled up the impossibly broad trunks of the surrounding trees. After the near pitch-black of the night it pierced Rey’s eyes like spears of fire, making her grunt and hold up her hands to shield her face. Gradually her eyes adjusted, and she could see the source of the light was what looked like a glowing rectangle of luminous gold embedded in the side of a tree. Another moment later and she saw it wasn’t merely a solid slab of light, but a door opening into the tree’s interior. Rey didn’t know what was more surreal more; the door’s sudden appearance, or the way its straight edges and clean angles clashed with the primordial wilderness. Then she saw the flight of stone steps descending deep into the earth, which decided that for her.

Rey felt the small hairs on the back of her neck and running down her arms stand on end. Even without the influence of the Force, she knew that the answers to where they were and how they got there was at the bottom of those stairs. She looked up at Kylo and saw he was already staring at her. The look on his face told her he reached the same conclusion.

“After you,” she said, gesturing to the glowing door with her stick.

“And leave the back of my skull wide open to you? I’ll leave that honor to you and your murder stick.”

“What’s to keep you from trying to break my neck by pushing me down those stares?” she hissed back.

Something snapped sharply behind them, followed by a high, cold cackle. Rey and Kylo simultaneously swung around and, upon seeing nothing, looked back at each other.

“Together?”

“Together.”

Rey took a deep breath, and she and Kylo Ren stepped side-by-side through the glowing door.

**Author's Note:**

> I had other things to say but I'm too damn tired.


End file.
